Chapter 22

Drovo

As soon as I heard the door click shut, I leaned in to meet Kayla’s soft lips with mine. I’d longed to kiss her from the moment I saw her, and I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to do so. She melted in my arms and kissed me back with as much fervor as I kissed her.

I took a step back, hoping to pull her closer to the bed, but instead I tripped over a blanket and fell backward, taking Kayla with me. We both fell with a grunt.

“Are you alright?” I asked as I checked her over.

My luna moth met my gaze with a smile and laughed. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I smiled back.

Her smile turned to a frown as she placed a hand on my chest and asked, “What are we going to do?”

I cupped her cheek in my hand. “Let’s not worry about that right now. We’ve got the priestess on our side, which is more than I ever thought possible.”

I was shocked when she admitted that she didn’t think we caused the stiffness. I had always assumed since she didn’t fight for us to stay that she also thought we’d be cursed by the goddess.

My thoughts were brought back to the present moment when I felt Kayla tugging on my pants.

I bit back a groan and used every bit of my willpower to still her hand. “You need your rest. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. There might be a lot of running involved with our escape.”

Kayla’s weak heart was always on my mind. I’d love nothing more than to exhaust her with pleasure, but I wouldn’t have her feeling weak in the morning because of me.

“I’m not tired and I’m too keyed up to fall asleep. Besides, if something goes wrong tomorrow and I don’t get to see you again for a long time, I’d regret letting this moment pass us by.”

“You know what? I’ve thought it over and I think you’re right.” I smiled at her and she let out a hearty laugh.

“Then let go of my hand and let me continue what I was doing.”

I let go of her hand, but not to let her take off my pants. Instead, I pinned her to the ground with her wrists above her head and enjoyed the breathless look of surprise on her face.

“Me first.” I kept her wrists pinned with one hand while using the other to unfasten her pants.

“Selfish male,” she wiggled below me.

“Ungrateful female,” I growled back.

“I didn’t say I was ungrateful. I said I wanted to do you first.”

“Too bad,” I smiled as my free hand slipped under her pants and through her wet folds.

She gasped at my touch. I slid my finger up to her sensitive bud and her hips lifted off the floor as I circled it.

“Now be a good girl and stay put,” I purred as I released her wrists and pulled her pants all the way down. “I wish to taste you on my tongue this time.”

My mouth watered to taste her sweet cunt. Her scent filled my nostrils and made my cock ache.

I brushed my lips along her thighs, and she trembled at my touch. I wanted her. Needed her. She was the only solid thing in my life. It has felt as if the world has been falling apart around me, but Kayla has been there, holding my hand through it all. She’s been there through the stares and the glares and the muttered rude comments of the other dekes. She has seen me in and out of my shifter form, and she doesn’t think I’m an abomination.

She saw me, and I saw her. Her desire to be strong even though her body is weak, her feisty spirit, and her tender heart. I saw her, and now I would taste her too.

I put her legs over my shoulders and got down on my belly, putting myself in the perfect position to feast on my luna moth, the female whom I hoped would one day be my mate.

Her beautiful cunt was spread before me, and I could hold back no longer. I gave her a gentle lick.

“Mmmm,” she hummed with delight and I licked her again, winning another pleasant hum. I turned my attention to sensitive flesh at the apex of her sex, and this time she didn’t give a gentle hum. This time, she gasped and fisted the furs.

“Just like that,” she instructed, and I was happy to oblige.

What started as a slow measured movement of my tongue became a rapid up and down motion that made Kayla’s hips lift off the ground. She was panting now. Her chest had become a darker shade of brown, and sweat was forming on her brow. She was close, so close.

Her hands were on my horns now, gripping me tight, and I longed to feel her grasp my cock in the same manner.

I reached up and pinched one of her perfect nipples, and she cried out as a gush of her essence coated my tongue.

I removed her legs from my shoulders and laid down beside her with a grin on my face. I’d brought my female pleasure, and what’s more, I’d brought her pleasure in the same valley that the Savrix who exiled me lived, the same male who told us we could never touch a female again.

But that all seemed to fade to the background when Kayla smiled up at me. None of that mattered now. All that mattered was Kayla, her happiness, her pleasure.

I traced the small baby hairs that were clinging to her forehead with my finger.

“You’re the most beautiful female in the entire galaxy.” My voice cracked with the emotion welling up in my throat. I’d just tasted Kayla on my tongue, but I wanted her again, now more than ever. Not just in body, but in soul, too. I wanted to find her in my furs every morning and wrapped up in my arms every night. I wanted to invent a thousand devices to make her life easier, anything to make her happy. But most of all, I wanted all her days. I’d missed so many of them already. If only she’d crashed here many seasons ago, then I could have witnessed so many more smiles. I could have heard more of her laugh, I could have smelled more of her scent.

It seemed foolish, but I wished I could have met her sooner. Even if she were to declare me as her mate this very night, we’d only have sixty to seventy seasons together, and I was a greedy male. I wanted more.

I would never forgive those males for ripping Kayla from her life and home in such a cruel way, but a part of me wished they’d done it sooner. Maybe I was an evil male like the Savrix claimed, because that is not an honorable wish for a male to have, yet I wished it.

I turned my attention to Kayla who had propped herself up on her elbow with a wicked gleam in her eyes, and without a word she let her hand trail down my body to my shaft which she traced the outline of through my pants with her finger.

It rose even higher than before, tenting my pants as my cock strained to break free of my clothes.

“You seem deep in thought,” she whispered so close to my ear that her breath tickled the hairs on my neck.

“I am,” I grunted.

“Don’t let me distract you, then.”

I watched as she undid the laces of my pants and pulled them down just far enough to free my aching cock.

Kayla looked at me hungrily, but then her expression turned pensive. Did she dislike what she saw? Before she’d touched me under a blanket, perhaps she’d imagined something else than what was before her now.

“Does it look different when you shift, or does your penis stay the same?”

“Um,” I swallowed hard. I’d only shifted in front of Kayla a few times, and mostly to fight off beasts. She hadn’t seemed put off by it, but that didn’t mean she was pleased by my shifted form either.

As if she could read my thoughts, she said, “I like your shifted form. Well, I like your unshifted form too. I like both forms, all, uh.” She seemed as tongue-tied as I felt. “I like all of you.”

She looked around the small room, checking that we were still alone. “I don’t know if it’s more comfortable to be in your shifter form or your sirret form, but we’re alone in here. You can shift if you want.”

“I’m most comfortable when I’m with you,” I smiled up at her and she gave me a shy smile as she tucked a braid behind her ear.

“Stop teasing me. I’m trying to be serious. If you’re more comfortable in your dryad form, you should shift.”

She got up from the furs and moved a chair to the door, where she tipped it so it rested under the doorknob.

“There, no one can barge in. You’re safe now.”

My heart ached as I took in her kind gesture. She wanted me to feel safe? There was no safety for me here in the valley, but I wouldn’t tell her that.

She laid back down next to me with an expectant look.

I brushed the back of my knuckles along her cheek. “I wasn’t teasing you. I am the most comfortable when I’m with you.”

She took my hand and placed it against her heart. “Then be honest with me, are you comfortable like this?”

I met her eyes and found no humor in them. She was brimming with sincerity.

“I am comfortable either way. Shifting feels like releasing a big satisfying stretch, but I’m not in any pain or discomfort outside of my shifted form. I am happy to be in my sirret form, especially if that’s what you feel comfortable with.”

I let those last words hang in the air. I wanted Kayla to tell me what she preferred.

“I want to see you in your shifted form. I like you either way, but it’s one thing to say that and another to prove it. I’ve seen the way the people here look at you, and it disgusts me. You have the ability to do amazing things, and yet they look at you like a monster. I just don’t get it.”

She wore an adorable frown on her face.

“Don’t trouble yourself over them, especially not on my behalf.”

“I’ll do as I please, including troubling myself on your behalf.” She scowled down at me, and I had to hold back a laugh. I loved her feisty spirit, especially when she was fighting with me instead of against me.

“Shift.” She gave me a determined glare and the laughter I’d been holding back died in my throat.

“You want me to shift?” Would she really be okay with my shifted form this up close?

“Yes.” Her expression softened, and she added, “If you’re comfortable with that.”

“I believe that you like me either way. We don’t have to do this.” I explained.

“I don’t think you do.” Her fierce expression had returned to her face, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Shift.”

Almost without thinking I obeyed her command. I couldn’t deny her anything. I closed my eyes and concentrated on releasing the forest within me. My skin turned hard as bark, my hair thickened into tendrils that resembled the vines that grew along the mountain, my horns changed to resemble branches, and even my cock shifted to add petals to my base that could vibrate as I willed.

I opened my eyes again to see Kayla taking in the sight of me from head to toe. She reached out, and I shivered as her fingers danced along my bark-like skin.

“Incredible,” she breathed and the nervousness that had been coursing through my veins eased. She had no animosity in her eyes, no disgust. She was telling the truth. She liked me, all of me.

Her fingers continued to dance along my skin, down my chest, my torso, past the ridges on my abdomen, and directly to the petals that surrounded my cock.

I groaned as her finger delicately traced the three large petals that circled the base of my cock. I held myself stiffly as she explored me in the most delightful way possible.

“Look at me,” her words came out breathy and dripping with arousal.

I shifted my gaze to hers.

“You’re amazing, Drovo, in body and soul.”

Tears pricked my eyes. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do.” Her voice was firm. “You’re amazing, incredible even, and I don’t think you’ve heard that enough in your life and that’s about to change.”

She bent over, putting her mouth dangerously close to my shaft, and blew. Her breath on my erect member made me shutter, but before she moved closer she asked, “May I?”

I swallowed hard and nodded my head.

She bent down lower and licked my cockhead. That small motion nearly caused me to spill my seed.

She bent down even lower, taking my entire cockhead into her mouth, and I grunted as her warm heat surrounded me. Without even thinking about it, the petals at my base started to vibrate as if they had a will of their own.

Kayla sat up startled, but then a curious expression crossed her face and she reached down and touched one.

“Drovo.” Her voice was nearly breathless and her expression entirely unreadable.

“I…I’m sorry, I can make them stop.”

“Don’t you dare!” Her eyes were full of awe and wonder.

“Drovo,” she began and stopped as if she couldn’t find the right words to express how she was feeling and it was driving me mad. How was she feeling? Did she like my vibrating petals?

“I feel like this is a really selfish thing to say, but do you know how amazing that is going to feel…for me? Like if we were to…mate.”

My jaw hung open at the implication of her words. My shifted form could bring her more pleasure than my sirret form? Surely not.

“But not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to show you exactly how amazing your body is.”

Her head descended on me so fast I didn’t even have time to react. Her sweet warmth engulfed me all over again, but this time she went lower than my cockhead, much lower and it took everything within me not to thrust into that pretty mouth of hers.

She bobbed her head up and down, sending ripples of pleasure down every vein in my body. I wouldn’t last long like this. I’d never known such pleasure, and although I wanted it to last forever, I knew it would be short-lived.

On her third descent down my shaft I exploded with a shout, “Kayla!”

I gripped the furs until my knuckles hurt and rode wave after wave of pleasure as my seed emptied into her waiting mouth.

I closed my eyes as I caught my breath and when I opened them again, my luna moth was smiling down at me as if I had been the one to give her pleasure and not the other way around.

“Come here,” I grunted as I scooped her into my arms and held her soft body against me.

“I’m going to love you all the days of my life,” I whispered. “You don’t have to love me back, but for as long as I live there will be no one else for me but you, my luna moth, my kira-si.”

Kayla turned to face me and I caught a tear that had streamed down her cheek. A tear escaped down my own face and she wiped it away just as I had done for her. That was our way. We were equals. As a shifter, I never thought I’d be equal to anyone, but Kayla had proved that wrong.

“I love you too,” her voice was a watery whisper.

“Claim me my luna moth. I do not wish to pretend to be mates any longer. I want to be yours in every way, I want to be your mate and you mine.”

I took her hand in mine and hope filled my soul as she looked at me as if I were the most honorable male on the planet.

“I claim you Drovo. I am yours and you are mine.”

I couldn’t help the sob that escaped my throat as I pulled her to my chest. Together, we were together now, for now and for always. Luminescence or not, we were mates.